Current weather

Woman will work to promote Love

A former board secretary and member of the board of directors of Love INC (In the Name of Christ) of the Kenai Peninsula has stepped into her new position as executive director.

"I felt Love INC was a wonderful ministry to reach the needs of the community through the churches, and I felt the Lord had been preparing me for the job," said Ingrid Edgerly, who officially moved into the new position the first of the year.

Love INC is a clearinghouse ministry that receives phone calls from people in need, verifies the need and reaches out to Kenai Peninsula Christian churches to provide the services needed by the callers.

According to Edgerly, Love INC has 31 churches under its ministry umbrella, all with different levels of involvement.

"We don't provide any services directly. We connect the person in the individual church with the person in need," Edgerly said.

She said the greatest challenge of her position is to get the ministry back on its feet financially. She also would like to see more churches participate actively.

"Nationally, Love INC is leaning in the direction of having each church take care of one specific need," Edgerly said.

"One might take care of providing business clothing. We might have someone who just got a new job and needs professional clothing for their first day at work. That one church would provide for the need. Another church might provide, say, fishing boots, or one might have computers or one, baby clothing.

"It's a direction the national office is leaning," she said.

The wife of Phil Edgerly, pastor of Reflection Light Chapel just south of Soldotna, and operator of Ingrid's Inn Bed and Breakfast in Kasilof, Ingrid Edgerly says her new role is to manage the board of directors and the Love INC office on the second floor of the Peninsula Oilers' building in Kenai.

In addition to the volunteers who perform the clearinghouse work for Love INC, the organization has three paid, part-time staff members, including the executive director, a secretary and a clearinghouse coordinator.

"I'm doing this because I feel the Lord has prepared me, the need is there, and I want to be in God's will and do his work as he calls me," Edgerly said.